glee

noun

ˈglē 

1

: exultant high-spirited joy : merriment

dancing with glee

2

: a part-song for usually male voices

Synonyms

• cheerfulness
• merriness
• cheer
• festivity
• mirth

Examples of glee in a Sentence

They were dancing with glee.

He could hardly contain his glee over his victory.

Recent Examples on the Web

Barely any other media in recent times has given me an instant shock of glee or revulsion like this absurd anarcho-cartoon being stretched and squeezed to its most grotesque and wholesome clickbait limits. —Kieran Press-Reynolds, Pitchfork, 10 Sep. 2025

Watching the actors sign language through glee, heartache, torment and even betrayal makes for some stunning scene work. —Lily Ford, HollywoodReporter, 9 Sep. 2025

The late Tom Wolfe, rubbing his hands with glee and spilling lemonade on his white suit, would be delighted that tradition has now taken its revenge on stuffy Bauhaus Europeanism, and maybe rightly so. —Adam Gopnik, New Yorker, 6 Sep. 2025

Or wait, is that an actual expression of glee? —Chris Willman, Variety, 29 Aug. 2025

Word History

Etymology

Middle English, from Old English glēo entertainment, music; akin to Old Norse glȳ joy, and perhaps to Greek chleuē joke

First Known Use

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Phrases Containing glee

• glee club

Rhymes for glee

• be
• bee
• bree
• cree
• fee
• flea
• flee
• free
• gee
• ghee
• he
• ki

Kids Definition

glee

noun

ˈglē 

1

: high-spirited joy

2

: an unaccompanied song for three or more voices

gleeful

-fəl

adjective

gleefully

-fə-lē

adverb

gleefulness noun